1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cookware and in particular an electric grill comprising a ribbed grilling surface adjoined with a flat cooking surface, with an adjustable food divider that is used to separate food from liquids when positioned on the flat cooking surface.
2. Description of the Background
There is a market for portable cooking devices, and a number of indoor grills were manufactured to meet this demand. Indoor cooking grills are characterized by a heated cooking surface, which uses either electric or gas to cook. One design prevalent in the background art incorporates a clamshell type hinged lid comprising an upper and lower surface. In the closed position, both surfaces cook the food. U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,562 to Deni et al. teaches one such device. The grill comprises a top and bottom cooking surface having a centrally hinge component for lifting or closing the lid. The cooking surfaces comprise rounded ribs and channels, which drain grease and other liquids from the food. Other indoor grills incorporate features such as heating chambers for buns and rolls. U.S. Pat. No. 6,016,641 to Tasi et al. shows an indoor grill having a top and bottom cooking surface in one chamber for cooking foods. Both cooking chambers are accessible by opening a clamshell-like hinged lid.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,905 to Boehm, et al. discloses a hinged grilling apparatus comprising upper and lower cooking surfaces. A vapor chamber is formed when the lid is sealed closed over the food. The bottom-cooking surface is inclined to remove grease or other liquids.
Unfortunately each of the above grills is hampered by the miniature size of the cooking surfaces. To maintain portability and conserve counter space while in use and facilitate the opening and closing of the hinged lid, it has been necessary to sacrifice the dimensions of the cooking surface on these grills. The result has been that indoor grills are unsuitable for preparing foods for more people or more types of food using one unit. When preparing foods on an indoor grill, the cook is forced to make smaller amounts of food at a time which increase the overall cooking time, and may require the host to serve food in waves, rather than serving everyone at once. Most of the time, when preparing food the cook may be grilling meat by it self on one surface and not two or three types of different foods on the ribbed grill adjoined by a flat cooking surface.
A further difficulty with indoor grills is found in the limited types of food that can be grilled or cook on the same unit. Flat griddle-like surfaces are useful for frying foods, such as eggs, potatoes or pancakes. By contrast, a ribbed surface is better for grilling foods like meats. The ribbed surface more closely approximates an outdoor grilling arrangement, and channels between the ribs carry away grease and excess water which drain from meats while cooking. Lacking in the art is an indoor grill for cooking, which comprises both types of flat cooking and ribbed grilling surfaces in one electric grill.
It would therefore be advantageous to have an indoor cooking grill that incorporates both ribbed grilling and flat pan or griddle surfaces in a configuration that is large enough to prepare large and small quantities of different types foods at the same time, on one unit, and is economical to manufacture and easily cleaned.
It would be further advantageous to have a way to separate food on these surfaces by using a food divider component that is movable and fits flush with the flat cooking surface and outside walls of the unit. It would be an advantage to keep liquids from mixing with other foods like tomatoes, potatoes or corn with the fat or grease from hamburgers and other meats.
It would further be advantageous to have a grill with both a ribbed and a flat cooking surface one-unit, so that unwanted liquids from different foods are unable to mix, thereby preserving the individual flavor of each food. Finally it would be advantageous to incorporate a temperature control whereby the temperature of the cooking surfaces may be selected from a range of settings.